The present invention relates to the creation of artistic fonts for utilisation by a computer image creation program to create computer generated images.
The utilisation of font characters in images is extremely popular and often required. Font characters themselves require substantial artistic judgement in creation. Hence, over time, many thousands of different font types have been created by artists. Each font must be created for each character within an alphabet and in addition, it is popular to create italicised and bold fonts in a matching artistic format. The creation of font characters is therefore an artistically laborious task and this is especially the case where the alphabet contains a large number of characters. Further, non english languages can have a large number of characters, such as chinese characters, arabic and hebrew characters in addition to the roman characters popular with the English language.
Given such a high level of artistic complexity substantial judgements are made by the artist when creating a new font.
One form of popular traditional artwork which appears to have arisen sometime between 563 AD and 744 AD is the xe2x80x9cCelticxe2x80x9d style which consists of a woven pair or knotwork. This Celtic knotwork is a distinctive style of art based on the woven plait, often fitted to an outline contour in which cords are broken and rejoined in a systematic manner to create the effect of an intricate weave.
Turning initially to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a number of simple examples of knotwork designs based on a plait. With a first example (a) being based on a plain plait, the example (b) being placed on a plait with angular tips, the example (c) being based on a plait with a break and example (d) being based on a more complicated system of breaks.
For more information on Celtic type fonts, the work of George Bain entitled xe2x80x9cCeltic Art; The Methods of Constructionxe2x80x9d, Constable, London, 1951 is normally considered the definitive test on Celtic knotwork constructions techniques.
It should be further noted that many different possible designs techniques are possible wherein substantial artistic judgement can be brought to bare. For example, FIG. 2 illustrates a number of examples (a)-(d) of different artistic renderings of a knotwork creation for the letter xe2x80x9chxe2x80x9d.
Further, other types of knotwork designs include the alternating weave property of multi-fibres as illustrated in FIG. 3.
Given the high level of artistic endeavour required, it would be desirable to provide for a system for the automatic creation of Celtic type fonts.
In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of creating artistic effects in an arbitrary object outline including the steps of generating a series of areas over an internal area of the outline, where the series of areas substantially follow the outline of the object and are substantially regular in size and warping one or more of the selected tile shapes of a predetermined set of tile shapes to cover the corresponding areas of the series, where the selected tile shapes are selected so that the selected warped tile shapes covering the areas of the series have matching patterns along their edges.
In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of creating artistic effects in an arbitrary object outline including the steps of: providing a set of tiles in response to user input; generating a series of areas over an internal area of the outline, where the series of areas substantially follow the outline of the object and are substantially regular in size; selecting, for each area, a tile from the tile set, where each tile is selected so as to match selected tiles from the adjacent areas; mapping, for each area, a selected tile to the area so as to cover the area; and rendering the mapped tiles.
In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for creating artistic effects in an arbitrary object outline by using a means for generating a series of areas over an internal area of the outline, where the series of areas substantially follow the outline of the object and are substantially regular in size. The apparatus also includes a means for warping one or more selected tile shapes of a predetermined set of tile shapes to cover corresponding areas of the series, where the selected tile shapes are selected so that the selected warped tile shapes covering the areas of the series have patterns matching along their edges.
In accordance with a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for creating artistic effects in an arbitrary object outline by using a means: for providing a set of tiles in response to user input; generating a series of areas over an internal area of the outline, where the series of areas substantially follow the outline of the object and are substantially regular in size; selecting, for each area, a tile from the tile set, where each tile is selected so as to match selected tiles from adjacent areas; mapping, for each area, a selected tile to the area so as to cover the area; and rendering the mapped lines.
In accordance with a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer program product including a computer readable medium having recorded thereon a computer program for creating artistic effects in an arbitrary object outline, the computer program product including means for generating a series of areas over an internal area of the outline, where the series of areas substantially follow the outline of the object and are substantially regular in size and a means for warping one or more selected tile shapes of a predetermined set of tile shapes to cover the corresponding areas of the series, where the selected tile shapes are selected so that the selected warped tile shapes covering the areas of the series have patterns matching along their edges.
In accordance with a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer program product including a computer readable medium having recorded thereon a computer program for creating artistic effects in an arbitrary object outline, the computer program product including a means for: providing a set of tiles in response to user input; generating a series of areas over an internal area of the outline, where the series of areas substantially follow the outline of the object and are substantially regular in size; selecting, for each area, a tile from tile set, where each tile is selected so as to match selected tiles from adjacent areas; mapping, for each area, a selected tile to the area so as to cover the area; and rendering the mapped tiles.
Preferably, the artistic effects include Celtic type knotwork designs and the arbitrary object outlines include font characters. Hence, the tiles can include substantial curves representing rope segments and the selecting and warping can include substantially matching the position and thickness of rope segments along the edges of the tile. Additionally, the rope segments can include multiple grouped substantially parallel rope segments.